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The
Ministry of Tourism has been working very closely with Ministry of Home Affairs
and Ministry of External Affairs for easing of the Visa Regime in the country
over a period of time. The Ministry supported the initiative regarding the
implementation of Tourist Visa on Arrival enabled with Electronic Travel
Authorisation (ETA) (renamed as e-Tourist Visa) strongly and committed all
support to Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry
of Civil Aviation for implementing this programme.

How
e-Tourist Visa Work

The
e-Tourist Visa enables the prospective visitor to apply for an Indian Visa from
his/her home country online without visiting the Indian Mission and also pay
the visa fee online. Once approved, the applicant receives an email authorizing
him/her to travel to India and he/she can travel with a print out of this
authorisation. On arrival, the visitor has to present the authorisation to the
immigration authorities who would then stamp the entry into the country.

This
facility is available to Foreigners whose sole objective of visiting India is
recreation, sight-seeing, short duration medical treatment, casual business
visit, etc. and not valid for any other purpose/activities. This will allow
entry into India within 30 days from the date of approval of e-Tourist Visa and
will be valid for 30 days stay in India from the date of arrival in India. The
e-Tourist Visa cannot be availed more than twice in a calendar year. The
facility will encourage people to travel with short-term planning, take via
routes while travelling to other countries and bring family members while on
business visits.

e-Tourist
Visa Fee

Government
of India w.e.f November 2015 has also revised the e-Tourist Visa (e-TV) fee in
four slabs of 0, US$ 25, US$ 48, and US$ 60 from November 3, 2015. Presently
e-TV application fee is US$ 60 and bank charge is US$ 2 which is uniform for
all the countries. The revision of Visa fee has been done on the principle of
reciprocity. Bank charges have also been reduced from US$ 2 to 2.5% of the e-TV
fee. There is no bank charge for zero visa fees.

List of
countries eligible for e-Tourist Visa on Arrival Scheme in India

Commencing from 27thNovember
2014, e-Tourist Visa facility was available until 25thFebruary 2016 for citizens of 113
countries. The Government of India has extended this scheme for citizens of 37
more countries w.e.f 26thFebruary
2016 taking the tally to 150 countries. The
list of 150 countries eligible for e-Tourist Visa as on 26.02.2016 is given
below:-